Posts tagged ‘Featured Members’

We’ve got members all across the country; in different time zones, climates and altitudes, all with one obvious thing in common – chickens. But what about the not-so-obvious things we have in common? For this reason we bring you a new series of Eggzy member profiles. Once a month we plan to feature an Eggzy flock owner and find out a little bit more about who we are collectively.

We’re happy to launch our series with a member who first started using Eggzy about a year ago – she was our 51st registered flock owner! Everyone, please give a warm ‘hello’ to Hollie.

– Hollie Holcombe is a LEED certified architect and owner of her own design business, you can learn more about her work at www.rascaldesign.biz.

Eggzy: What is the name of your Eggzy egg stand?Hollie: It’s currently called “Holcombe Fluffs,” although I’m not sure anybody but us ‘gets it.’ We call our chickens ‘fluffies’ because it’s cute.

Eggzy: When did you join Eggzy?Hollie: Gee, I’m not sure when it was, but I joined Eggzy as soon as I heard about it because it just made sense

Eggzy: Where are you located?Hollie: We’re in Conshohocken, PA – just NW of Philadelphia.

Eggzy: Tell us something about yourself?Hollie: The chickens were the inspiration for me to start my own business. I wanted to call it “Green Rooster Design” because we had a particularly interesting rooster at the time, but that business name was already taken. One day the rooster was being quite a rascal, and then it hit me; that’s when Green Rascal Design was ‘hatched.’

Eggzy: How long have you been keeping chickens?Hollie: We got our first 6 chicks (un-sexed!) in September of 2009.

Eggzy: Why do you keep chickens (For eggs, for meat, for show, as pets, etc.)?Hollie: We got them as pets, and we enjoy the eggs. We planned to use their waste in our compost bins to start our vegetable garden with. Another big plus is that they eat all our table scraps and veggie bits from making dinner, such as bell pepper and tomato cores.

Eggzy: How many birds to you have?Hollie: We currently have six hens.

Eggzy: What do you feed your birds? Organic? Conventional? Table scraps?Hollie: The fluffs eat organic feed unless the feed store runs out (oops!), table scraps, leftovers, and whatever they can get their beaks on in the garden (which we grow organically).

Eggzy: How do you raise your birds, are they pastured?Hollie: Since we’re in an urban area, they spend about 70% of their time in their cage, which is 10′ by 15′ with hardware cloth on the 7′ ceiling. We have a lot of dogs, cats, possums and hawks to deal with. The other 30% of the time they’re either in their Fluff Utility Vehicle (FUV), which is a smaller cage we move around the yard so they can get grass, etc, or they’re roaming under our direct supervision while we’re out picking veggies or berries.

Eggzy: Do you have a favorite breed?Hollie: We love Ameraucanas because they’re so sweet, and the fluffy beards are so cute.

Eggzy: Do you name your chickens?Hollie: Yes, they all have names. The brown red ones are Cinnamon and Nutmeg. The cuckoo marans mix is Pepper. The little rhode island red/leghorn mix is Sugar. And the younger ones are Pumpkin (red-black) and Clover (blue wheaton).

Eggzy: Do you cull birds from your flock? (After their egg productivity peaks, extra roosters, etc.)?Hollie: We gave away our roosters, but we don’t do any culling ourselves. We don’t expect Pepper or Sugar to lay eggs again, but they’re still part of the family.

Eggzy: Do you have any advice, tips or insights you would like to share?Hollie: I’m always the most interesting person in the room at networking events. All I have to do is mention the chickens, and people just flock to me (no pun intended). So if you’re new to chicken-keeping be prepared for attention and lots of questions.